Casey Anthony - Contrasting Quality In Representation

Juries are typically very visual and Johnnie Cochran was a master at dramatic visual presentations.

Now that the defense case has started in the Casey Anthony trial it is becoming obvious that her defense team is just not nearly as skilled as counsel for the State of Florida. From Casey Anthony's lead counsel Jose Baez through the supporting cast, you can see how much they struggle with just simple and fundamental question formation.

Contrast the the quality of the representation that money can buy for high profile defendants like O J Simpson. Simpson's initial lead counsel, famed celebrity attorney Robert Shapiro, put together an all-star cast of characters to represent Mr. Simpson and you can see the result of those efforts. The Simpson team included Shapiro, flamboyant high profile trial attorney Johnnie Cochran, trial war horse F. Lee Bailey, who since 1954 had tried many high profile cases, Alan Dershowitz, high profile Harvard Professor and National Constitutional Law Expert, DNA experts Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, both of them noted law professors and national experts on DNA evidence, and a host of other attorneys with sub-specialties.

During the Simpson trial the defense team completely dominated the flow of the case, the pace of the evidence and the outcome for an obviously guilty client. In the Casey Anthony case it is like the blind leading the blind for the defense and the prosecution team is dominating every aspect of this case.

This article is not to say that Casey Anthony is innocent, but you can see by watching this case, as it unfolds, that she is being fed to the wolves by inadequate counsel who are all in way over their respective heads. However, this sort of situation happens all the time in capital cases, but because most cases are not in the news and on TV, the public never sees it as clearly as it can be seen in the Anthony case. There is a huge disparity between the resources available to the average defendant like Casey Anthony who cannot afford their own defense and the virtually unlimited resources of the State or Government in cases like this. The result of this disparity is that some innocent people go to prison or get executed because they just simply do not have the staff or resources to fight the overwhelming assets of the government.

I cannot offer any realistic solutions to this situation, it is just an unfortunate reality. The government is not out to find the truth in cases like this, the government is out to obtain a conviction at any cost, as unfortunate as that truth is. Casey Anthony is not a good person, but she deserves a fighting chance at making this process fair. I suppose in cases like this some arbitor could set a budget for the case in general and split the budget down the middle making both sides put the case on with the same resources; short of this solution, I do not know what else can be done.

Can you hear Johnnie Cochran in this case: "if the tape doesn't stick, you must acquit..."